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Warning! You have just wandered into the unpopular playground arena, a unique

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space specifically designed for young adults and those soon becoming where

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curiosity meets unconventional learning and dialogue with brutal honesty. If

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you're a bold and daring rebel who wants more options on your life journey than

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you have now, keep listening. Welcome Jenn Lin. Welcome back to the Unpopular

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00:00:34,740 --> 00:00:43,440Playground. This is Jen Lin with another Wednesday episode. In light of the LA

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fires that have been going on, I would be remiss to jump over that and not

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mention anything. Considering when I came back from Laughlin on my trip from

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Christmas vacation, I came right in to the fire. So everything was on fire when

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I came back last Wednesday. So I have five points that I'm gonna go over and

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cover and it's what happened. Number one, number two, two kinds of people. The two

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kinds of people in that you're either prepared or unprepared. Third point,

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disaster isn't selective and going over the whole social economics thing,

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touching on that as a carryover of what I had discussed last week. It's a perfect

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highlight of this. And four, control. What's in your control and what's out of

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your control. And five, responsibility. So the first point, as I said before, I was

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just returning back to California and started seeing all of the, hearing about

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all of the LA fires. Definitely felt the wind as I was driving along. It was

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quite strong and then hearing everything is on fire in the Malibu

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Palisades area, which was concerning because my dad is in the area about eight

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minutes away from the Palisades fires and there was no containment, no sign of

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containment. I'm wondering if the fire was going to spread over to where he was

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at. I believe that Santa Monica is pretty close to there and then had it hit

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Santa Monica, it would have easily spread over to where in the area where my dad

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was at in Culver City. I think he said it was about eight minutes away. So that was

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a concern with all of that, trying to keep myself together amidst watching

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this shitstorm that could have easily been minimized with priorities. If the

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priorities were set straight from the beginning on the part of the California

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government to include the governor, the mayor, and the fire chief, it's proved that

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it's a clear misalignment of priorities and it definitely, I thought it would be a

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good lesson to put out for you, my dear listeners, to think about your priorities

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for yourself, for your families, and personally and anything else that you

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might be responsible for. So I have these points for you to think about to be

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able to at least get your head in the right place so that you can start

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jotting down what's most important. That's ultimately what priorities are. It's

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putting things in order of what you need to do first, very much like baking a

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cake. You have, it's pretty straightforward when you're cooking

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something, you first you get all of the ingredients together, then you mix

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them, put certain things in a certain order for it to turn out right. And if

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anything is out of order or there's a step that is skipped, it's not going to

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turn out right. So just something to think about. So now you have two kinds of

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people. You're either prepared or you're not prepared. When you think of that

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story, the three little pigs, the first one built this house of straw, then twigs

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for the second one, but the third one built his, he took a little bit longer.

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He built his house out of bricks. It was nice and solid and wolf proof, most

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likely fire proof. And the other two, they were just not paying attention. They

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did a really crappy job building our houses. One was worse, one was a little

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bit better, and then you have the best. So he took more time, had his priority

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straight because he didn't want to have to worry about anybody blowing his house

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over. And you have the Girl Scouts, they're known for being prepared. Military,

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when I was in the military, we were always training, train as you fight. And

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when I was a teacher, we had, coincidentally, we had fire drills and we

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had earthquake drills. And then very recently, my last year of teaching in the

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classroom, we had shooter drills. So that why? So that when all of these things

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happen, we can respond and react with some degree of automaticity to where we're

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not frozen and panicky. Because when you're under duress and anxiety, you're

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either going to fight, flight or freeze. But if you practice what you need to be

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doing before it happens, rehearse it out in your head and then practice it, you're

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gonna be prepared for these things. And all of this did not happen in the state

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of California. I can tell you that. Based off of everything that I see, because when

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firefighters go to put out a fire and there's no water, hmm, and the mayor's not

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there, hmm. And the governor only wants to make excuses about what everybody else

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is doing and deflect everything. Hmm. There's a clear indication of a

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misalignment of priorities. And when you're prepared, there's a buffer and you

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can lessen the damages. When you have your priorities straight and you're able

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to prepare, you can better survive until you can rebuild and get back to some

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degree of your new normal. Because the bigger the disaster, the less likely that

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your normal will ever be the same again. It's going to be different. You're going

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to have a new normal. And the more you are unprepared in whatever it is, this

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fire, LA fires is a very good example of what it looks like to not have your

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priorities straight or be prepared. But it can be that way in your life as well.

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So think about that. And then the third point is disaster is not selective. In

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the last episode in You Matter, I talked about the big elephant in the room

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being social economics. That's what people aren't talking about. People just

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want to gloss over that and the differences between that. Well, you know, a

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lot of it focuses on poor people not having what they need, systems not having

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what they need. And wow, as we've just now seen in these LA fires, firefighters not

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having what they need to include people competent, people who can do the job,

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competent government, who can leaders, who can fulfill their responsibilities and

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answer up to them when they're not done. And people pay taxes to be

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expect to at least be safe. Please come out when you're in danger and when your

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house is on fire to for the fire department to come out and help rescue

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you. If you're stuck, right? If there's somebody people who can't do the job,

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that's a big problem. And I would dare say that that's when funds are misappropriated,

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that's stealing. That's stealing because you took money that should have been used

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for safety and use it for other things. And that's all I'm gonna say. I'm not

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really getting in. I'm not getting into the politics of things. I'm talking about

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priorities and what was clearly not a priority. That was ensuring that the fire

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department had what it needed to include competent people not fulfilling

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motives. I'll just say that. Also, I talked about in the socioeconomics about it. A lot

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of rich people, a lot of our Hollywood, they lost their fires, homes, pets, memories,

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communities. And I was really saddened to see a lot of the hate going out. They're

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all people just like us. And they're all also blessed. They probably do have more

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homes. They have a better chance to probably rebuild most likely than we do.

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The average person that loses everything or their business is gonna take us the

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average person that people who are struggling a lot longer to do that. But

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still, they're we're all human. And in this disaster, all people who are in LA,

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whether you're rich or poor, you know, they all, everybody lost. And they all pay

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taxes as well. And it's really sad for everybody. And anybody shame on you for

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saying that you're glad that that happened to them too. You know, I'm a little

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bit disappointed about that. But still. But on the flip, we have checked this out,

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all of the exploitation going on. You got lawsuit people fishing for information

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talking about, well, are you a victim of the LA fires? And then, you know, the

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scammers are out trying to exploit all of the people in their misery. But the

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weirdest part about that was just after I talked about, you know, we're all the

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same and divide, you know, in what we lost. I heard about the Kardashians

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putting out a go fine made for Paris Hilton's billion dollar mansion to the

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public. Now each one of those Kardashians probably won by themselves could

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probably help Paris themselves without putting a dent in their net worth. But

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they're going to go and head out to go find me for other people who don't have

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a pot to piss in that they're supposed to contribute to her mansion. That's

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pretty unrealistic and that's selfish. And that I would say is exploitation. And

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that the Kardashians clearly don't have a sense of priorities or or any shame in

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that this pretty sad control. That's my next point. You either have control or,

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you know, things are either in your control or they're not in your control.

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And what you want to think about is, did you or are you doing what's in your

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control now to manage the damage control? So it's all about controllers now to

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manage all of the the damages that could happen now or in the future. Did you or

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are you doing what's in your control? You think for yourself and are those

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people in authority doing what they're supposed to do? Did they do it? And and

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you think about authority. What is authority? It could be your mothers,

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teachers, CEOs and government. And I went out on a limb and looked up

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accountability. What the top five things regarding authority of what they should

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be doing. What the tasks of what they're the average person in authority is

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supposed to do. And that would be accountability, support and development,

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communication to make sure it's free flowing. For support and development,

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you naturally nurture your people to make sure that they are growing in

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education, that they know what they need to know for their tasks, their

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responsibilities, that the communication is free flowing, that things are fair

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and consistent, that people are competent, that they're competent in what they

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are doing and safety and well-being, that that that they're safe and that

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you're not mismanaging money. It's really, I mean, those are the five, five

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basic things of what you're supposed to do when you're an authority figure.

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And I know I'm going a little bit over time, but I think this is really

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important. I just saw my last point. I did say that I wasn't going to go over

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a half hour, but so I'm well within my limits. Responsibility versus accountability.

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Sometimes people think that they're interchangeable, very similar.

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They're in the same family in the same arena, but they're not.

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They're very different. One is a part of the other. It's very much like all

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rectangles are squares, but all squares are not rectangles. Kind of like that.

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So responsibility, it's an obligation to perform assignment of tasks.

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That's responsibility. Accountability is who is answerable for

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the outcomes, whether they're success or failures, but especially the failures.

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Think about all of the things that even in your household growing up when

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you're at school, when you're at work, you're assigned a task.

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And if you fail, there's a consequence. People don't focus so much on the successes.

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But if you mess up, they're going to want a name to blame.

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Somebody told me once there's a little bird that goes flying around and he's

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looking in his name is blame and he's looking for somebody to land on.

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And you want to make sure he does not land on you.

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So making sure he doesn't land on you.

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The blame is to make sure that you have your priorities straight, that you know

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know your tasks and anybody that you are in charge of knows their tasks,

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that they have those five basic things down.

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Because guess what? If you don't have that done, I mean, you have to look out

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for yourself, but if you're in authority, it's not just about being large and in

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charge. It's about that accountability that when the shit hits the fan,

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you're the one that's going to go down, not so much your charges.

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It's who was, who was responsible for making sure that you were safe,

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that you knew what you needed to know, that you are competent, that you were

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supported and developed and that you things are fair.

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If you are that one, well, you know, you've got to be accountable.

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And the more the higher up the more that you're responsible for people as the

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people increase, as the money increases, the bigger the budget, the more people

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you are in authority for.

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And especially when they can die or destruction happens and mismanagement,

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you don't have your priorities straight and things are mismanaged.

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There's a misalignment of priorities.

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The consequences are worse if you fail and the accountability is much heavier

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when you're an authority figure.

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Those that are rushing to be large and in charge, it's not just about being a boss,

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it's being a leader, making sure that you have your responsibilities for yourself

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and for everybody else taking care of, minding your peas and queues,

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crossing those teas, dotting those eyes and nobody's immune.

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Even if you're an older brother or sister babysitting, you're the oldest sibling.

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I'm an oldest sibling and growing up, if something wasn't done, it didn't matter

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if it was my brother's responsibility.

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I was the oldest, I was the authority figure.

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I'm the one who took the hit.

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I'm the one that got spanked.

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I'm the one that got punished because I was in charge as a mother, teacher, military leader.

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All of the positions that I had in authority, I was in charge and any damages, losses,

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anything to do with money, misappropriation of funds, I had to take the consequence.

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If my family screwed up when I was in the military, I got in trouble.

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Not them.

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I got in trouble.

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Not my students.

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If something happened with my son, if he got in trouble, I got in trouble because he was just a kid.

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That's accountability and the bigger the consequence, that's when fines, jail, and loss of my privileges.

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That's why we have law.

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That's why we have prisons and consequences for people who don't account for their responsibilities.

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If I failed as a teacher, you see it every day, people, ordinary people.

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If we don't do what's, we don't handle our responsibilities, then we are accountable and we get swift consequences.

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And look at what's happened with these L.A. fires.

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Nothing but blame shifting, deflecting the blame as if they were not responsible.

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A governor, a mayor, and a fire chief, all with clear, misaligned priorities and no accountability.

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I definitely will be going over priorities and how you can align your priorities correctly,

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how you can prepare for emergencies and not just disasters,

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but maybe even personal disasters to make sure that the things that you want in life will come a lot easier

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and the things that are out of your control that you'll be able to handle them a little bit better.

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That is it for this episode.

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I hope that I've given you a lot to think about.

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And we'll see you in the next episode, next Wednesday.

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Stay curious.

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Bye for now.

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This is Jenn Lin.

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Thank you for listening.

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Jenn Lin has now left the arena.

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You've been listening to the Unpopular Playground.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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If you enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to subscribe for more thought-provoking conversations.

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We'd love your feedback, so drop a comment and let us know your thoughts.

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Don't forget to share this podcast with another bold and brave friend who might appreciate our adventurous journey together.

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And remember to return next Wednesday for our next episode, if you dare.

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And as always, stay curious.

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00:19:55,600 --> 00:20:19,600
There's so much more to explore!